The Panel looked at Sources and Types of Environmental Contaminants, including Exposure to Contaminants from Industrial and Manufacturing Sources, Exposure to Contaminants from Agricultural Sources, Environmental Exposures Related to Modern Lifestyles, Exposure to Hazards from Medical Sources, Exposure to Contaminants and Other Hazards from Military Sources, and Exposure to Environmental Hazards from Natural Sources.

The text of the letter accompanying the report:

Though overall cancer incidence and mortality have continued to decline in recent years, the disease continues to devastate the lives of far too many Americans. In 2009 alone, approximately 1.5 million American men, women, and children were diagnosed with cancer, and 562,000 died from the disease. With the growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the unacceptable burden of cancer resulting from environmental and occupational exposures that could have been prevented through appropriate national action. The Administration’s commitment to the cancer community and recent focus on critically needed reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act is praiseworthy. However, our Nation still has much work ahead to identify the many existing but unrecognized environmental carcinogens and eliminate those that are known from our workplaces, schools, and homes.

To jumpstart this national effort, the President’s Cancer Panel (the Panel) dedicated its 2008–2009 activities to examining the impact of environmental factors on cancer risk. The Panel considered industrial, occupational, and agricultural exposures as well as exposures related to medical practice, military activities, modern lifestyles, and natural sources. In addition, key regulatory, political, industrial, and cultural barriers to understanding and reducing environmental and occupational carcinogenic exposures were identified. The attached report presents the Panel’s recommendations to mitigate or eliminate these barriers.

The Panel was particularly concerned to find that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated. With nearly 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States, many of which are used by millions of Americans in their daily lives and are un- or understudied and largely unregulated, exposure to potential environmental carcinogens is widespread. One such ubiquitous chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), is still found in many consumer products and remains unregulated in the United States, despite the growing link between BPA and several diseases, including various cancers.

While BPA has received considerable media coverage, the public remains unaware of many common environmental carcinogens such as naturally occurring radon and manufacturing and combustion by-products such as formaldehyde and benzene. Most also are unaware that children are far more vulnerable to environmental toxins and radiation than adults. Efforts to inform the public of such harmful exposures and how to prevent them must be increased. All levels of government, from federal to local, must work to protect every American from needless disease through rigorous regulation of environmental pollutants.

Environmental exposures that increase the national cancer burden do not represent a new front in the ongoing war on cancer. However, the grievous harm from this group of carcinogens has not been addressed adequately by the National Cancer Program. The American people—even before they are born—are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures. The Panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation’s productivity, and devastate American lives.

The above post concerns a hearing held to hear about a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on EPA’s progress in protecting children from environmental threats. It discusses the challenges EPA faces in protecting children’s health. (To be fair, many people acknowledge that shortcomings in the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, are responsible for EPA’s being unable to protect children and others from environmental pollutants.)

I’m not usually one to plug particular networks, but I thought the following mentioned in the Dr. Gupta blog might be of interest.

EPA Has Not Focused Attention on Children’s Health in Agencywide Priorities, Strategies, and Rulemakings

Includes a figure showing the steps where children are considered in the EPA rulemaking progress. The report does note that some offices within EPA more consistently incorporate considerations for children’s health in their work than others, but notes that at least one other federal agency does not even seem to do that.

In Recent Years, EPA Has Not Fully Utilized Its Office of Children’s Health and Other Child-Focused Resources

Opportunities Exist for EPA to Lead and Coordinate National Efforts to Protect Children from Environmental Threats

“…While EPA leadership is key to national efforts to protect children from environmental threats, EPA’s efforts have been hampered by the expiration in 2005 of certain provisions in the executive order. For example, the Task Force on Children’s Environmental Health provided EPA with a forum for interagency leadership on important federal efforts, such as the National Children’s Study.”

GAO recommended that Congress consider the following:

Because EPA alone cannot address the complexities of the nation’s challenges in addressing environmental health risks for children, Congress may wish to consider re-establishing a government-wide task force on children’s environmental health risks, similar to the one previously established by Executive Order 13045….

Chairman Barbara Boxer will convene the Full Committee for a hearing on the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) children’s health program. The committee will also examine what can be done to strengthen protections for children.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) is also expected to give testimony on the federal government’s role in investigating children’s health issues and how that can be improved.

EPA’s response

EPA agrees that the GAO report reflects well the early history and progress of the Agency’s children’s health protection efforts. The report accurately portrays the Agency’s challenges in addressing children’s environmental health, and sets forth sound recommendations on steps that could be taken to better incorporate protection of children’s health as an integral part of EPA’s everyday business.

Grevatt also noted that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson had designated the protection of children’s health as one of her top priorities. He then described how EPA would implement its strategy to protect children’s health.

EPA will use the best science to ensure that regulations provide for protection of children’s environmental health by actively addressing the potential for unique childhood vulnerability and exposure. Our goal is to reduce negative environmental health impacts on children through rulemaking, policy, enforcement and research that focus on prenatal and childhood vulnerabilities.

Protecting children through safe chemicals management.

Coordinate national and international community based programs to eliminate threats to children’s health while measuring and communicating our progress.